The fear and love of "big Data"

Mobile phone, mobile communication device or Internet social platform, it is no novelty, even in many third world countries, mobile phone popularity has more than a decade of history, as the Internet social platform, if from the earliest ICQ is also "more than 10 years old", even today's most popular Facebook and various micro-blogs, Its embryonic form has also appeared for many years.

However, when "mobile communication" and "social network" to achieve seamless docking, combination, and to bring people "at any time embedded network" convenience, "privacy" has quietly become the "big Data Age" the most unexpected and most unpopular by-products.

The "cabbage-like" of mobile digital products such as smartphones and tablets and WiFi signal coverage of the pervasive, so that more and more people no longer have "online time" and "no online time" points, as long as they are willing to, can be 24 hours non-stop hanging online; online transactions, online payments, online registration and other network services are popular , although user-friendly, but also make people more dependent on the network, rely on a variety of online platforms.

At the beginning of the internet age, anonymity, privacy has been the greatest feature. The need for online payments, online transactions, and real-name authentication is becoming almost impossible with the combination of "mobile" and "cyber-social", and the security of data privacy becomes increasingly important.

With the advancement of Science and technology, used to need a few boxes of floppy disk or a CD-ROM to save the information, now only a fingernails size of the chip can be all stored; In the past, computers, monitors, readers and other specialized equipment to read the digital information carrier, now only a digital phone and a free download of app Third-party applications, The data can be glance.

The scientific and technological progress of the big Data era, let people more seemingly ordinary things become "mobile database", such as with memory chip of the second generation of bank cards, credit cards, with chip reading function of the new passport, driver's license, Social Security card, library card and so on. In some developed countries, the official for information entry convenience, but also constantly put a variety of "mobile database" function into one, if in Canada, the government has introduced a set of health insurance, social security and driving licence function as one of the "smart card", so that holders can only rely on a card, access to more than the previous cards (card) to achieve the function But, on the other hand, it also means that with a single chip, you can open up a lot of personal data privacy portals that need to be opened with electronic keys in the past.

There are too many winners in the Big Data Age: E-commerce platform business, operators, digital technology developers, defenders and providers, a variety of online services, operators and managers, as well as from this increasingly convenient access to information, inquiries, management profit from departments, institutions, such as government agencies, tax authorities, customs inspection, Traffic management departments, financial services institutions and so on. On the one hand, they expense strengthen the "big database" security measures, on the other hand, patiently told the public, "Big Data" is safe, they will be responsible for this.

However, this may not be accurate, a news of April 24, 2013, let many people shocked.

This day, a Canadian broadcasting Company (CBC) reporter to test a North American mainstream credit card company pledged "security commitment" in public to do a trial: He used a common Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone, the Google Play online store to download a free app Third-party applications , which was scanned by a stranger on a mobile phone in public, and successfully read the information contained in a card chip in a stranger's bag, including the card number, cardholder name, and expiration date.

Some businesses have developed a "big data Age" business bundle, also intentionally or unintentionally to promote the personal information data "undefended": Facebook Point A "praise", perhaps unknowingly involved in a commercial marketing campaign, the user's personal data also in ignorance to the relevant advertising party open ... In March this year, the European Parliament published a study that said that the "big data" of the cloud computing era was not only a threat to personal privacy, but also more serious than people thought.

Andre Clement, a professor of information at the University of Toronto in Canada, points out that the combination of social networks such as Facebook and Weibo and a new generation of mobile communications technology makes personal information collection very easy in the "Big Data Age" and that personal data protection becomes increasingly difficult.

A survey conducted by the Canadian Privacy Council in 2011 found that 60% per cent of respondents thought that, compared with 10 years ago, their personal privacy was becoming more unsafe, and 55% of those surveyed believed that social networks would reveal their privacy. As Clement said, in the "Big Data Age", people "unknowingly created a dangerous digital information ecology."

However, it is neither possible nor desirable to be unworthy.

The same survey showed Canadians worried about the "big data Age" of social Networking information security, on the other hand increasingly rely on social networks, more than half of respondents believe that modern life is no longer away from social networks and smartphones, and often use social networks to worry about the proportion of social networking information security (45% ) far below the infrequently used user (66%).

Some commentators point out that privacy issues are not unique to the "Big Data Age", but already, the mobile phone cyber, the document cyber and steals the credit card information and so on, all is "the former data age" to be widespread, only in from the media, the mobile digital and the social network age, the information dissemination-obtains the channel pluralism, lets the question appear more complex.

(Responsible editor: Fumingli)